Many thanks to all who entered the Center’s 2012 Creative Photography Awards Program. With a big surge just before the December 31 deadline, the number of entrants is up more than 50 percent. The theme: “Railroading Inspired by [Dick] Steinheimer,” who died in 2011; the judge: his widow, Shirley Burman Steinheimer, also a photographer and the historian who has put woman railroaders on the map. We will announce the winners next month.
The special preservation issue of Railroad Heritage® has drawn widespread attention for excellence of both illustrations and information. The son of one of the nation’s most celebrated photographers has purchased five copies. So do not miss this issue—a collectors’ item. The North American Railway Foundation supported its publication; Trains Newsletter publicized it. An abbreviated version is on the web; copies are for sale.
Executive Director Scott Lothes hit the deck running in August, pushing forward on all the Center’s programs and helping clear the decks so president John Gruber can concentrate on bringing the Chicago Faces exhibition to fruition in the autumn of 2013. Scott is instrumental in managing exhibitions, collections, the annual Conversations about Photography Conference (April 13-15 at Lake Forest College), the Awards Program, and in keeping the office and its digital equipment on an even keel.
By joining the Center you support programs that build the public’s understanding of railroading in America’s past, present, and future.
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Photos from issue no. 26 of the Center’s journal, “Railroad Preservation in a Nutshell.”
Springer Gives Photographs to Center
Fred Springer, who started making railroad photographs in the 1940s in Colorado and New Mexico, has given his photographs to the Center along with a substantial donation to catalog and preserve them. The gift includes about 80,000 color slides and 7,500 black-and-white negatives. Read more.
Jack Delano and Frank Lloyd Wright Meet in Railroad Heritage 27
A profile of one of the Chicago Faces, Jamie W. Edwards (to be featured in the Chicago History Museum exhibition in 2013), appears in the just-released Railroad Heritage® No. 27. Edwards’ portrait was taken, of course, by Jack Delano in 1943. Edwards, an engineer, and his across-the-street neighbor, George E. Burton, a conductor, were captured in color as they checked their watches in preparation for taking a Santa Fe steam freight out of Chicago’s Corwith Yard. Delano shares billing with Frank Lloyd Wright, whose interest in railroads and transportation generally resulted in two stations, one at Wilson Avenue and Broadway in Chicago and the other in the city’s northern suburb of Glencoe. The history of the two stations is tied to the North Shore interurban line that linked Chicago and Milwaukee. Neither station had been previously discussed this extensively, especially in the contexts of their neighborhoods. Members have received their copies of issue No. 27; you may order separate copies or receive one free by becoming a member before February 1, 2012.
Get Set for 2012 Conversations
Clear your calendars for April 13-15 and make travel plans for being at Lake Forest College for the Center’s 2012 version of Conversations about Photography. Shirley Burman Steinheimer tops the list of presenters and will discuss the life and work of her late husband, Richard Steinheimer, who died May 4, 2011. “Stein” was a remarkable artist with his camera; Shirley is a remarkable speaker and photographer, known particularly for her research and writing about women in railroading. Other presenters are Bill Botkin, Centennial, Colorado; Steve Crise, Los Angeles; Joel Jensen, Ely, Nevada; Chris Starnes, Gate City, Virginia; Chis Goepel, Lakspur, California; Henry Posner III, Pittsburgh; and Tom Fawell, West Chicago, Illinois. You may register in early January.
Plowden Exhibition Travels
If you missed David Plowden’s photographs in Milwaukee at the Grohmann Museum this fall, never fear. You have a second chance to see them in Roanoke, Virginia, at the O. Winston Link Museum beginning February 10. Plowden, once an assistant to Link and now a highly celebrated landscape photographer in the U.S. and abroad, selected the exhibition’s images from those published in his recent book, Requiem for Steam. The Center is the exhibition’s organizer and distributor; read more on our events page.